


The Marriage Pact

by aesthetixoxo



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: F/F, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:02:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7656622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aesthetixoxo/pseuds/aesthetixoxo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Izzy and Clary made a pact; if they were both unmarried at thirty, and neither was seeing somebody else, they would marry each other. Twenty years later, they've lost contact. But, in a surprising turn of events, one of them wants to uphold the contract.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Marriage Pact

Izzy hadn't heard from Clary in over eight years, so receiving a letter from here was a little... bizarre, to say the least. Whatever the envelope contained, it was probably important. Maybe a party invitation, since her thirtieth was coming up. It wasn't every day you turned thirty, so it was possible. 

Or it could be a wedding invitation; she would've suspected Clary to settle down early, but with her (reasonably) high standards, it wasn't improbable that Clary was just now getting married. Plus, artists weren't ones to settle down, Clary had always turned her. Which was funny, since Clary was one of the most committed people she had ever known.

Or, it made her sick to think, it could be a funeral invite. She was close to Clary, so naturally she had grown close to Clary's friend, Simon, Maureen, and Dorothea. She had even dated Simon for a brief stint, although that hadn't amounted to much; they just weren't compatible. If one of the passed away, even given the timeframe of lack of communication, she assumed Clary would at least let her know.

What she pulled out of the envelope was what she least expected. It was a contract she and Clary had written nearly twenty years ago when they were both just young girls with crazy minds. As surprised as Izzy was, she also wasn't very surprised. After all, Clary was one of the most committed people she had ever known.

The contract had been inscribed on Izzy's finest stationery in pink glitter pen, and was roughly a page long, written in a bunch of technical garb that Clary had learned from her stepdad Luke, who was a detective. The gist of the contract stated that if neither of them were married by the time they were thirty, and neither of them were seeing other people, then they would marry each other.

Izzy wasn't seeing anyone, and judging by the contents of the envelope - just the contract, nothing else - so was Clary. Izzy wanted to believe that it was just Clary reminiscing, if only to keep her sane. But the actual sane part of her knew it was more than that. She can't help but wonder what it means, exactly.

She thinks back to their eighteen years of friendship; they had completed each other like nobody else. Izzy was the more intelligent and strategic of the two, while Clary was more creative and fashionable. They had taught each other how to be more like the other, and still twenty years later, Izzy was always thinking of things Clary had said ("This cherry lipstick goes great with your skin tone, and if you pair it with this dress, you'll have all the boys wanting you.").

Izzy debates in whether or not she should find clary on Facebook. She weighs the pros and cons in her head, then takes a seat in front of her laptop, typing 'Clarissa Fray' into the search box. The first one to pop up is Clary's profile, and she clicks on it; they were still friends on Facebook, even if they hadn't spoken in forever. Izzy still regrets that, if she's being honest with herself, which she always tried to be.

They had planned to go to college together, but when Clary got accepted into a prestigious art school in New York, she couldn't pass it up. Izzy stayed behind in California, and slowly they stopped communicating. She had kept in touch, or at least tried to, with Simon, Maureen, and Dot, but they had formed a band and gone 'touring,' and stopped talking to her, too

For a while she blamed herself, but she also realized that most people didn't stay friends with the people they grew up with; rather than continuing to grow up with them, they grew apart. There was a wound on her heart that still stung, like salt was being rubbed into it, but she tried not to take it personally.

She types out a short reply, takes a moment to think it over, then presses the enter key. No going back now, she thinks, as she shuts her laptop. 'I got your letter' was all she had said, and yet there was so much weighing on those for words.

It's hours later, the message and the letter completely forgotten,when her phone buzzes with a notification. She hardly uses Facebook, so the buzzes startle her for a second before she remember. She quickly swipes the screen, typing in her passcode.

'What do you think of a winter wedding?' 

'You can't be serious.' Izzy replies impulsively. A notification lights up her screen just seconds later.

'I miss you.' Is all Clary has to say, and Izzy finds herself rolling her eyes. Her nostalgic demeanor from earlier had been replaced by one of anger.

'You have a funny way of showing it.'

'I know I should've kept in touch, but you stopped messaging me, too.'

'There's no reason to start back up now.'

Izzy leaves the screen up, taking note of when Clary reads it. Five, ten, fifteen minutes pass, no reply, and Izzy assumes that's the end of that. It hurts; she thought Clary would have fought harder for their friendship to reconcile. But she knows she'll live.

Half an hour passes when her phone rings. The caller I.D. indicates an unknown number, but for some reason, Izzy knows it's not so unknown. She picks up after three rings, knowing that this was going to be an important conversations, whether it ended good or ended poorly.

"Belles," Izzy hears a familiar voice, uttering a nickname that had only been used by Clary. Only her voice is more mature, now, light and soft, although that might just be the way she's speaking at the moment. She can tell Clary had been just as conflicted as she had been; she's not sure who rubbed off on who with that one. 

"Rissa," Izzy greets, the unique nickname she adopted for Clary rolling off her tongue; she knows her tone sounds harsh, but Clary had practically abandoned her. She feels slightly guilty, but also slightly justified.

"I miss you."

"You said that," Izzy says, and she can't help but laugh softly at the ridiculousness of this all.

"I know." Clary's voice trails off before she continues. She sounds hopeful when she informs Izzy, "I'm back in California."

"How long have you been back?" Izzy can't help but be surprised. New York had been Clary's dream; she assumed Clary would stay there for pretty much forever. To hear she's back is more surprising than anything Clary had said or done that entire day.

"About four months," Clary says hesitantly, and before Izzy can get mad at her, she rushes to explain, "Believe me, I've been wanting to say something to you, to come see you and surprise you, but I just felt so... ashamed."

You should, Izzy wants to bite back. But she doesn't. Instead she leans forward, rest her elbows on the wooden desk. "Well you've certainly succeeded in that surprise part."

"Can I confess something?" Clary asks, and Izzy hears something indecipherable in her words. Izzy nods before realizing that Clary can't see her.

"Of course."

"I left for a reason." Clary says. There's a long silence, long enough that Izzy has to check to see if Clary had hung up, before Clary continues to speak. "I liked you."

And the surprises continue. Izzy feels her throat tighten, and even if it was physically impossible for her to say something now, she wasn't going to anyways.

"I maybe more than liked you. But then you were with Simon, and you two seemed so happy together. You seemed more serious than past relationships, anyways."

Izzy listens intently, almost as if listening to a song. Clary's words flow, the pitch of her voice moving up and down as her emotions fluctuate. She always did love the sound of her voice, almost as much as she loved the calm of her touch.

"So I decided to just take some time away from you, and I came to a realization. Either I needed you in my life as more than a friend, or I couldn't have you in my life at all," Clary chokes at the last few words, the tears in her voice evident. "And I know I should have talked to you, at least given some sort of an explanation. But I couldn't ruin our friendship and your happiness at the same time."

"Clary," Izzy breathes. She's not sure what to say. If that was the reason she had lost her best friend, she feels terrible, because it could've been so easily resolved with simple communication. Clary wasn't at fault though, Isabelle knows, she could have admitted her feelings, too. But she was scared. They both were.

"I know you probably didn't feel the same way, and you probably won't ever, but I just had to find some closure, and give you the peace of mind you deserve."

"I love you," Izzy says matter-of-factly. She's unsure if she should say anything else, but when Clary doesn't respond, she feels obligated to. "I mean, I think I do. I know I did before, but you never seemed interested..."

Clary actually laughs at that.

"I knew there was a reason Jace and I didn't work out, it was just so frightening to realize when you're so young."

Izzy knows exactly what she means; despite the fact that she always appeared confident, she was more insecure than she seemed. Her feelings for her best friend only made her feel more so. She felt like she was doing something wrong, even though reality had told her that any feelings she had, whether or not they were reciprocated, were completely valid.

"Do you think we could meet up? Like, right now?" Izzy asks, and Clary confirms that she can. They discuss the details, neither saying any more than they have to, then they end the conversation.

And suddenly, Izzy is transported back to high school graduation, back to the one moment she had almost gotten the nerve to confess her true feelings to Clary. She would've been leaving for New York the next day, and Izzy didn't want to leave things unresolved (even if she had assumed these feelings were one sides, at the time.)But she couldn't do it.

Now was her do over.

Hopefully she wouldn't blow it this time.


End file.
